By Roberto Bustamante
Mar 28, 2024, 17:51 PM EDT
The US authorities have undertaken a tough crusade against fentanyl due to the public health crisis it has caused throughout the country, which is why the sentences against those who traffic this drug are announced with great fanfare to set precedents.
The sentence he received was recently announced Alex Dominique Carrilloa 21-year-old from Pharr, who pleaded guilty last December to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl.
Under his plea agreement, Carrillo will spend the next 96 months (eight years) in federal prison, after which he will serve four years of supervised release, according to the Department of Justice in a statement.
At the hearing, the court heard that in addition to the fentanyl, authorities determined that Carrillo was also linked to the seizure of several kilograms of methamphetamine.
“A single pill can kill. Mexican drug traffickers do not take into account the countless lives lost to fentanyl. “Today’s sentencing puts another fentanyl trafficker behind bars and thousands of lethal fentanyl pills off the streets,” explained U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
The investigation against Carrillo
In May 2023, authorities began an investigation that determined that Carrillo was working as a drug courier and worked on behalf of a Mexican drug trafficker.
His task was to collect the drugs once Mexican smugglers successfully smuggled them into the country, then deliver them to various buyers in the United States.
In June, authorities confiscated 500 fentanyl pills in Pharr, Texas, which had been transported by Carrillo, so they began monitoring his home.
Two months later, in August 2023, the authorities observed that Carrillo left in his car, so they followed him, seeing the authorities nearby. threw 3,500 fentanyl pills into a trash can of a public parking lot.
Investigations showed that the drugs were going to be taken to a buyer in McAllen. Authorities successfully recovered the pills and arrested the man.
After his capture, the young man declared that he had received the pills the night before and that he was ordered to deliver them to another person with whom he was in communication, adding that He suspected that he was being deceived and threw the pills into the trash bin.
Carrillo will remain detained pending transfer to a US Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
The Drug Enforcement Agency carried out the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Garcia prosecuted the case.
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